TENNIS: ROUNDUP

TENNIS: ROUNDUP; Some Players Still Favor A Boycott of Wimbledon

Published: June 13, 2001

A new seeding system may not be enough to prevent a boycott of Wimbledon by some of tennis's top clay-court players. Despite the organizers' compromise by doubling the number of seedings, to 32 from 16, two clay-court stars, Alex Corretja and Juan Carlos Ferrero, said the grass-court players still got a better deal. Even Marat Safin, the United States Open champion, who does not stand to gain either way, supported them.

Ferrero, a French Open semifinalist, called the seeding initiative a step backward and said he favored a boycott. Alex Corretja, like Ferrero a Spaniard, said he would wait until next week to decide whether to play at Wimbledon, which begins June 25.

Safin is not a clay-court specialist and expects a high seeding for Wimbledon's grass courts. He thinks the seedings should strictly follow the ranking.

The biggest problem is that while the top 32 players in the ranking will be guaranteed a seeding, Wimbledon will determine the order of the men's seedings based on players' grass-court records. This apparently was not enough to satisfy Ferrero and Corretja, who are ranked No. 5 and No. 9, respectively, in the latest ATP list.

RODDICK OUSTED IN WIMBLEDON TUNEUP: Andy Roddick's grass-court preparation for his first Wimbledon started poorly yesterday with a 7-6 (5), 6-3 loss to another 18-year-old newcomer, Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, at the Queen's Club tournament in London. Roddick, whose French Open ended in the third round because of a groin injury, now heads for Nottingham for another tournament on grass. Youzhny took the final three games of the match to win in 1 hour 10 minutes. Top-seeded Marat Safin recovered from a shaky start in his first match on grass this season to beat Jens Knippschild, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2, in the second round.

STEVENSON GAINS WIMBLEDON WILD CARD: Alexandra Stevenson, a Wimbledon semifinalist two years ago, beat Lena Krasnoroutskaya, a French Open quarterfinalist, 6-4, 7-5, yesterday in the D.F.S. Classic in Birmingham, England. Stevenson, who came from a break down in the second set, was given a wild-card berth yesterday for Wimbledon, where in 1999 she became the first qualifier to reach the semifinals before losing to the eventual winner, Lindsay Davenport.

Since her 1999 breakthrough, Stevenson has been hampered by hamstring and back problems. They forced her to miss the entire clay-court season. She slumped from a career-high ranking of 33rd to 124th.